How’s your editing?

One of the hardest things for most authors is the editing process. It’s a very important part of the writing process. Some authors hire editors and leave it all up to them, but is that enough?

I recently read an article in a writer’s magazine and it opened my eyes to several things concerning editing. A bestselling author was talking about editing and she was astonished at what readers caught in her latest work that was missed by both her editors. Do we only skim over the work while editing?

One author said that she read the work again after the editor finished, but she found about 20 errors that were completely missed. So, when has your book been edited enough? If professional editors are missing the errors what do we do as writers? For me I read and then read again. It’s amazing the errors you find on the second read through.

When writing usually I’m so into the story that I don’t even realize the english that I use. But what if the story needs the bad english to make the point at that place in the book. Will the editor catch that or will they change it and in that one change make the paragraph lose it’s meaning? This happens so many times to writers. Sometimes the way you state something to make a point might not be the best english, but in the situation it makes perfect sense.

So, how’s your editing skills? Do you need help? If you’re not sure about your editing skills, check out having your book looked at by more eyes before you publish. My company, Horseshoe Publishing helps authors get their books publish ready, including intense editing.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

What are you waiting for?

Lately I’ve received several messages from writers that talked about not publishing their work. My question is always, ‘Why not?’ It’s so easy nowadays. Of course I was skeptical when I hit the publish button the first time, but over 10 books later I haven’t looked back.

It’s such a rewarding feeling when you sell the first book. But the feeling of accomplishment far out weighs any of the nerves I had. It’s funny how the nerves always hit before I publish my books, even several books in. I always get anxious and wonder if anyone will like my work, then I hear from some of my dedicated fans and I smile.

If you put your heart into your writing, why not put it out there? Don’t let those manuscripts just collect dust. I did that for so many years. Take the leap and put it out there. Whether you self publish or go with a traditional publisher, do it. It’s worth the try and you won’t regret it. Don’t let the years go by and the books fade away.

If you need any help with covers, editing, social media setup for your books or anything with the publishing, check out the tab at the top of my blog. I own Horseshoe Publishing along with my editor. We help take the pain out of publishing. Just sit back and write.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Lost in my characters

Have you ever lost yourself in your characters? I think all writers do at one time or another. What’s crazy is I was talking with someone the other day and started to tell them something that happened to a friend and then I realized it had happened to a character in my book. I just shut my mouth and decided to get my head on straight before I talked again. Maybe that’s why most writer’s choose the life of a recluse.

Sometimes when I’m writing I get so lost in my characters world that I have to readjust to my own life. It’s a fact that you have to get into your characters head in order to write a believeable character. If you don’t get involved with the character how can you even begin to tell their story. it would be like writing about someone you’ve never met or seen. It’s almost impossible.

For me I like to write a character bio on all the main characters. That way everytime they do something new, then I write it down so that my characters stay true to form. This helps when writing a series where the characters appear in several books. Oh and for goodness sakes make sure you note ages and names. That’s so embarassing when your editor asks who the new character is midway of the book and you realize you accidentally changed their name. Yep, been there done that.

Lately I’ve been lost in the 1800’s while writing Emma Rose. I’m really excited about this new installment in the Women Of Magnolia Hill Saga. But I do have to make sure I keep up with the times that I’m writing in. Emma Rose has taken over my brain, so I need to get back to her story. I’ll be revealing the cover really soon.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Release Day for The Winner Takes All…

This is the much awaited 2nd book in the Winner Series. I’m so excited that this one is finally out. I’ve received so many emails and posts from readers wanting to know what happened to Slade and Stacy. Well it’s up and running. The cover went through several changes but the final product is better than we could have imagined. It evolved from one picture to two in this dreamy cover.

Will there be a book 3 in this series? Well, it’s a possibility but it will be down the road some. I have been playing with the possibilities but we’ll have to see if it comes about.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day and hopefully all of you thought about the meaning of the holiday. As for me we spent Sunday and Monday at the lake. It was relaxing, but I only got in about 1000 words all weekend. It’s crazy how you plan to write over a holiday weekend and then life steps in and there it goes. The weekend is over and you’ve missed your word count. Well, I guess that just means extra work every night this week to get the word count back up.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Have we lost our attention span?

I sat and did a little people watching not long ago. As a writer it’s a tool I use for inspiration and also it’s really fun. People can be funny when they don’t know your watching them. The biggest thing I noticed was that most of the people were easily distracted. Either their phone was buzzing or they were looking at things on their phones.

Do people ever just stop and smell the roses anymore? I remember when I was younger we’d sit on the front porch in the evenings and just watch the sun go down. It was peaceful and relaxing. But now everyone is attached to some kind of device and they’re either text, on social media or listening to something. It’s a crazy thing.

It’s the same with readers now a days. I’ve seen a sharp incline in shorter books. I have even had fans tell me they love that my books don’t take up a lot of time and they can read them in one or two sittings. I remember when you’d grab a large novel that would keep you reading for a couple of days and be happy. Now you have the lunch time readers that want a book that’ll fill up their lunch hour and be done.

We stay way too busy these days. Have you watched sat and watched the sun sink in the sky lately? Have you watched the sun rise with the promise of a new day? What about just sat down and talked with your spouse about random things? We need to stop and smell the roses more often. Enjoy the short life we’re given and remember to live…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Starting with a good foundation

Writing a book is not as easy as it looks. There are so many steps to making a readable novel. Of course you can just write a story and publish it without following the needed steps, but I don’t recommend it. Make sure what you put out to the public is the best it can be. As I stated in my post about polishing it up, take the steps to make it the best it can be.

This starts with a good foundation. You don’t want to build your house on shifting sands, so why build your story on a whim. Writers are full of stories, it’s the way we’re made. A story line comes to us and we immediately start writing, but in many cases we need to sit down and make sure that the story line is strong enough to hold up a novel to the end. If you can’t make the story line hold up the whole book then you might want to rethink the process.

Sit down with the story idea. Think it out. See where the story goes in your mind. Most of the stories that come into my head actually keep poking at me until I do this. You all know how I am about outlines and yes, I know some of you are groaning, but they help keep the story in line or somewhat in line.

Also, you need to make sure that the story idea will keep a reader involved and interested throughout the middle part and the ending. If the story does not have enough backbone to hold out to the end, you might want to rethink it. Sometimes when you sit down and really give it some thought you can make it work. A writer has a way of making the story come alive and evolve. That’s what your story line idea has to do, evolve.

Using an outline can help build the foundation of the story. You can sway some from the outline, but make sure that the story stays consistent so that it follows neatly behind the leader. Don’t forget the reason for the story, the backbone of the story. That’s what builds the foundation on a sturdy foundation, not a sinking sand foundation. Make your book the best it can be, so start off right. Do your homework. Writing a book takes work, so give it your all.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

The delete button is painful…

Ok, how many of you have had to hit the delete button? If you’ve ever worked on a computer you’ve eventually hit the delete button. Some of you are probably wondering what I’m talking about. Well, for a writer, delete can be a dreaded, horribly painful button. Your finger hovers over it fighting with you not to do. Your finger screams “NOOOOO”, but eventually you force it to do what you’ve told it to do.

Now, let’s get past my dramatic description to the meaning of this post. I was working the other day on one of my books when I hit a brick wall. The unfortunate thing about this brick wall is it was very high and wide, no way around it. Suddenly the story just ended suddenly. What do you do when you hit that dreaded brick wall in a story? Is it too early to end the story, or do you just end it there?

Well, in some instances the story just ends there, but what happens when you know the story needs to go further in this book? If it’s a part of a series, well you just start the new book on the other side of the wall, but if it’s a stand alone, well, you’ve got to get past that wall. But how?

I sat staring at my screen, unable to think about the inevitable. After much thought and wondering what happened, I finally took a look at my outline. I was confused because it was going along so well and then I ran smack into a wall. Why? Then as I read down the many lines of my outline I realized what I’d done. Duh!!! Ok, so I’m blonde, I’m given at least one, maybe two blonde moments in a day. What I’d done was skip a couple of pivotal story line turns. For some reason I’d totally jumped over some very important happenings in the book. I’d actually skipped several chapters.

You may be saying, how on earth did you do that? Well, if you’re a writer you may be saying, yep, been there done that. That night I didn’t start writing until late in the evening after a long day of tax return preparation. I was exhausted and just wanted to get lost in my manuscript. That’s the problem, I got lost in my own manuscript. Sometimes when you’re really tired, you just need to step back and do something else. Maybe design a cover or work on some character descriptions, but beware if you step into a manuscript.

I had to delete three chapters, yes you read it right, three whole chapters. I’d totally skipped several chapters of important parts that would lead correctly up to the end of the book. My brain had literally skipped some of the main plot rendering parts of the manuscripts. As I read through what I’d typed it began to become obvious. All I could do was delete.

You may be asking why I didn’t copy the work and then paste into the end after I entered the needed work. Well, the ending I’d typed did not actually go along with the missing work. That’s another reason I map out the work that comes into my brain. If life steps in and walks all over my memory, well then I have some reminders written into the outline. It totally saved the manuscript. Needless to say, it will take a little longer to finish, but at least it will be complete as it should be, not just a quick ending to the story.

So, a little piece of advice. If you need some help with your manuscripts flow, sit back and take a deep breath. Then try out an outline, it really saved me this time and definitely saved the story.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Do you dream about your books?

I can’t help but smile when I ask this question. As a matter of fact I dreamed of one story line last night. When my alarm went off this morning I was working on the turn that one of my books is taking. What’s funny is in my dreams the turn was easily taken, but when my fingers hover over the keys sometimes it’s more difficult.

My newest book “Finding The Right Time” came to me in a dream. I could see the start and finish clearly. The middle was a little fuzzy, but I knew how it would start and eventually how it would end. What’s frustrating is I usually wake up before the books finish.

In my dreams I can see my characters clearly as though they’re real. Well, in a sense they are real to me and I want them to be real to my readers. If I don’t bring about a realness of my characters, how can I expect my readers to make a connection with them. So when I dream of my characters I try to jot down every detail I remember when I wake up.

It’s crazy how the writer’s mind works. I think a writer has a extra brain cell because our brains work over time.

Have you dreamed up one of your books before? Tell me about it, I’d love to hear the story.

As always, good writing and May God bless you…

What’s in a review?

I’ve blogged about reviews before and each time I get a lot of response from fellow authors. Reviews can do a lot for an author. They can cause readers to flock to your book, run away from your book or make them unsure. I’ve been reading several posts from fellow authors regarding the trend in reviews and in some ways its not good.

As I’ve said before, if you’re thinking about reviewing a book, please read the book first. It’s so evident to an author when a reviewer hasn’t even read the book.

Let’s take a look at some of the things fellow authors have told me about some of their reviews that either made them laugh, cry or smile. Some may have caused all of these emotions.

1: I really enjoyed this book but I’m giving it a 2 star because I didn’t like the characters name. (This author was shocked when she saw this review. What’s funny is, even though it’s a 2 star review, which should be bad for the sales, the reviewer told readers it’s a good book.)

2: This book is horrible. Why did it have to be so unrealistic? People just can’t do this in real life. (Ok, this one made me laugh out loud. The book being reviewed was a Paranormal book about mythical creatures. I do give the reviewer credit, people really can’t do what the characters did in this book because they aren’t real. This author’s book sales actually escalated after this review.)

3: Why? Please stop this. I didn’t like this book at all. (This reviewer went on to email the author directly and tell her to stop writing. The author smiled as she was telling me about this review because she actually has hit the bestseller list in several countries with the very book this reviewer slammed. Her response was “It takes all kinds to make up the world”. By the way, this book is free and the reviewer did not pay for it to begin with.)

4: Great book. I can’t wait for more from this author. Waiting impatiently for next installment. (This author was thrilled with this review. It was her first book and she was afraid it wouldn’t do well.)

5: I loved the book, but could have been a little more descriptive. The writing was good and the character development was well received. (This was a constructive review that was helpful to the author. She said that actually she went back and edited a couple of areas of the book to correct these issues.)

This was just 5 of the responses I received after my last post on reviews. We rely on reviewers to be honest about their reviews of our work. The sad thing is many people out there are not very nice when they review a book. They strive to make the author look bad. What’s really sad is that a post I read a couple of months ago, several authors were slammed repeatedly on Amazon and the reviewers were not verified purchases. The wording went along the same line and did not mention anything from the book. The reviewer was slamming the author themselves. It’s sad but true.

My advice to new authors or even veteran authors that haven’t developed a thick skin is this. Use the reviews wisely. If the review is structured and they explain the flaws they see, then maybe check the flaws out. It could help. But if they’re nasty and scathing, just let them roll off your back. It’s hard, but as a published writer, you’ve opened yourself up to the public and sometimes they aren’t very nice.

So, tell me your experiences with reviews. How do you react? Just remember, smile you’re a published author.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Are you using your voice?

Ok, I know that’s a strange question, but hear me out. I’m talking about your author’s voice. That voice that speaks to you and drives you to write. You know that voice, it’s the one that wakes you in the middle of the night, the one that keeps your mind off everything around you, and it’s the one that nudges you to write that next chapter before bedtime. Yeah, you know it. All writers hear it, some ignore it, but you hear it.

But the question is, are you using your voice? Have you listened to others and changed to suit them, but not you? Yes, we need to listen to our critics, but if we totally change our voice aren’t we denying our inner talent. When you write from your heart it shows. When you listen to that voice in your head you use your writer’s voice.

If you change that and don’t listen to your own voice, then where does the story come from. Well, it would have to come from somewhere outside of your head, which means you’re not using your voice. It’s your writer’s voice that makes you the writer. It’s that voice that gives you the stories you write, the emotions, the complexity of characters. So, if you don’t use your own voice, then what next?

Did you know that your voice determines the genre you write in? If your voice leans toward romance, then you write romance, if it leans toward science fiction, then you’ll write science fiction. You get the picture, right? Well, I’ve talked to writer’s that listened to critics and other people and they changed their voice. But it wasn’t a good change, it was a tragic change. Their writing went downhill. Yes, we all need to edit our voice, I mean we’re not perfect in no means, but we don’t need to edit our voice.

I had a reviewer tell me one time that I needed to add some tequila shots to one of my books. She went on to explain that she thought it needed to have more heated love scenes. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not my voice. She liked the book, but wanted more steamy sex scenes. My writing voice leans more toward the calmer romance voice. I have no problem with steamier books, but it’s just not my voice. That’s why we have authors that write in that voice. I lean more toward the heart warming romance. But that’s just the way I write. I have many great author friends that write steamy romance and I love their books. They in turn read mine and appreciate it also. We understand that all of us has a different voice.

So, are you following your voice? Are you listening to that inner part of you that makes your writing exclusively yours? Remember to follow your heart and not follow what’s popular now. You never know, you could start a new voice or popular culture.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…